Reading Pop Classics

Rebecca and Kennedy discuss Miranda July's 2024 novel All Fours, in which a woman embarks on a cross country road trip....for about 20 minutes.

Shhhhh. Don't tell anyone, but we read The Silent Patient.

Someone cue that Green Day song they play at high school graduations, we've come to the end of this journey.

Is the Man with the Thistle Down Hair really John Uskglass? Where is Arabella? And what the hell is King George's problem? The saga of English magic continues.

We cover Volume 1 of the 2004 mega hit, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. This is the first of a three episode series.

In this episode Kennedy and Rebecca visit Prythian and Do. Not. Have. Fun. We didn't enjoy this.

We discuss the word-of-mouth phenomenon about an octopus, a senior citizen, and an absolute moron.

In this minisode before our upcoming episode on Remarkably Bright Creatures, we discuss speculative feminist canon masterpieces, how The Odyssey is drags at the end, why Mary Robison should be more widely read, how a novella gave us Brad Pitt, and whether anyone has ever seen a Tabitha King book in real life. Some of the books discussed:I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline HarpmanLegends of the Fall by Jim HarrisonThe Woman Lit By Fireflies by Jim HarrisonWherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life by Jon Kabat-Zinn PhDWhy Did I Ever by Mary RobisonDays by Mary RobisonInvisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk

Kennedy and Rebecca cover Swedish banger turned English-language banger, A Man Called Ove.

We had a lot to say about this book so we broke this episode into two parts.

Kennedy and Rebecca get into Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow to see what all the fuss is about.

We read what The NY Times called "the best book of the 21st century." Turns out we agree.

Enjoy our To Be Read minisode as we get our lives together as best we can leading up to our next main episode covering Elena Ferrante's beloved masterpiece, My Brilliant Friend. To Be Read minisodes cover non-podcast books we've recently read, books we're currently reading, and general news and updates.

Kennedy and Rebecca go back to the early 90s with Waiting to Exhale.

We read James by Percival Everett.

Rebecca and Kennedy cover the second half of Demon Copperhead.

Part one of Demon Copperhead. We cover chapters 1 - 34 in this episode.

We discuss Colson Whitehead's crime novel, Harlem Shuffle.

Kennedy and Rebecca read and discuss one of the best-selling books of all time.

Rebecca and Kennedy go over the Pyrenees with the Nightingale.

We solve the 9/11 ending of Ottessa Moshfegh's My Year of Rest and Relaxation.

Loved, despised, and maligned, we discuss Fight Club, the book (and movie) that everyone is convinced everyone else misunderstands. Also, Kennedy had a cold while we recorded this and you can hear it. Sorry.

Is the history really secret if you tell Richard Papen about it? Rebecca and Kennedy tackle the Donna Tartt's beloved first novel, The Secret History.

We cover Joan Didion's classic, Play It As It Lays.

Rebecca and Kennedy get mopey and nihilistic with a book about grim, emotionless reality of being....rich? Saddle up for Bret Easton Ellis's debut classic, Less Than Zero.

Kennedy and Rebecca discuss Helen Fielding's hilarious and beloved Bridget Jones's Diary. V.G.

Rebecca and Kennedy re-read Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's 2013 classic, Americanah. From Nigeria to America and England and back to Nigeria, our hosts discuss the journey from home to home.

This time, Kennedy and Rebecca are talking about Paul Beatty's 2017, Man Booker Prize winning novel, The Sellout.

In this episode, Rebecca and Kennedy have a conversation about Conversation with Friends....the episode is better than this play on words suggests.

Activate your electronic thumb, pack a thermos of Pan-galactic Gargle Blasters, and obviously don't forget your towel. We're discussing the comedy classic, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Rebecca and Kennedy get out the fire extinguishers for Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere.

In this episode Rebecca and Kennedy discuss Octavia E. Butler's speculative fiction novel The Parable of the Sower, set in a chaotic, bleak, and dangerous future in the year....2024? Ah nerts. That's not good.

Kennedy and Rebecca read Gail Honeyman's international bestseller and discover that Eleanor Oliphant is absolutely not fine. She's definitively not okay.

Kennedy and Rebecca fawn over Jesmyn Ward's National Book Award winner, Salvage the Bones in this episode.

We read S.E. Hinton's classic, The Outsiders, considered to be the original YA novel.

Kennedy and Rebecca read Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls, one of the best selling books of all time with over 30 million copies sold (according to Wikipedia, anyway).

Kennedy and Rebecca follow Billy Pilgrim as he comes unstuck in time in Kurt Vonnegut's anti-war classic Slaughterhouse Five.

In the inaugural episode, Kennedy and Rebecca discuss John Kennedy Toole's comic novel A Confederacy of Dunces.